WHILE MANY SUPPORTERS felt that last weekend’s narrow win over Scotland was simply more of the same from Ireland, more worrying than encouraging, new head coach Andy Farrell believes that his team are in a great position.
With a win under their belts and another home clash to come on Saturday against Wales, Farrell is positive about how Ireland are progressing.
It took some Scottish failures – most notably Stuart Hogg dropping the ball over the tryline – to ensure Ireland won in the end, but Farrell is keen to stress that his team came through a very tough game with the right result.
“It’s actually great, believe it or not,” said Farrell when asked about Ireland’s confidence today, having just named his team to face Wales.
“It is actually great because what a position to be in. We’ve won our first game at home, some good and some fix-ups.
“Scotland, I don’t think people are giving them the credit they deserve. I’ve not seen Scotland play like that for some time. They were ferocious in all sorts of contact within the game, I thought their set-piece was absolutely excellent.
“They’ll be deeply disappointed, I would have thought, because they threw everything at us in that game. So they have a lot to do with it and we’ve got to manage that type of situation better as well. We will do this weekend.”
Farrell’s selection for the clash with Wales has also left some fans underwhelmed, with many arguing that Ireland’s XV simply appears to be a continuation from the World Cup under Joe Schmidt.
Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway, and Rob Herring are essentially new starting players in this championship – Caelan Doris was another last weekend, but he is now sidelined after a concussion just minutes into his debut.
Ronan Kelleher made his debut off the bench last weekend, while Max Deegan is poised to do the same against Wales, but there have been calls for more change.
John Cooney remains behind Conor Murray at scrum-half, with Farrell opting for only two injury-enforced changes to his team, Robbie Henshaw coming in for Garry Ringrose and Peter O’Mahony starting in the back row as Doris misses out.
“We don’t just do it in ten minutes, selection always has its ups and downs,” said Farrell in explaining that Ireland had agonised over some of their calls. “We have a good team with continuity. It is the right team to represent our group against Wales.”
Given that continuity, Farrell is backing his players to improve on last weekend’s performance, with several areas in mind.
“Defensively we were really good at times, but not consistently,” said the Ireland boss. “We felt we gave them yards at times. We lost a few collisions at the start of the match. We can be better there.
“Our set-piece? We had an honest and open forum there and the boys are looking forward to this week as far as set-piece is concerned.
“Our attack, we became a bit clunky at times and Scotland had a lot to say about that. They really messed up our ball and everyone wants to play off quick ball. At times in attack, I thought we created some really good opportunities. Did we see them all? Probably not all of them so there’s some good opportunities that went wasted there.
“There’s been a fair reflection and it’s been a good couple of days as far as reviewing and getting out on the field today.”
Farrell said today’s training was intense and ferocious as Ireland look to build for what promises to be an absorbing encounter against the Welsh, who have their own new head coach in Wayne Pivac.
Wales hammered a very poor Italy team 42-0 last weekend in their Six Nations opener. Although that was a disappointing test of Wales’ quality, Farrell and Ireland know how big a challenge they will face on Saturday.
Ireland saw some new twists in the Welsh tactics last weekend, having noticed some change when they played the Barbarians last year in Pivac’s first game.
“We know that Wales are Grand Slam champions and semi-finalists at the World Cup,” said Farrell. “Rightly so, they’re being talked up as a great team.
“You see two of their forwards sprint off to the width straight away which says a lot of where they’re trying to go. It’s funny because you would think that you’d need to get your spacing right defensively to manage that width but, therefore, they start playing through you.
“We’ve got to make sure that we win the contact area first, it’s the same in any other game. I’m sure Wales are talking about the same scenarios.
“I thought their passing was really good as well. I thought Nick Tompkins came on for his first game and he was whizzing the ball everywhere. Hopefully, they don’t get that time and space against us at the weekend.”
You’d swear we lost the game with some of the negativity surrounding our last performance. It wasn’t perfect, but under new management it was unlikely to be a fantastic performance. Under Gregor Townsend Scotland have defeated Australia, England and ran NZ very close (22-17) in the autumn internationals a few years back. On their day they can beat almost anyone. Not enough credit is being shown to Scotland for their performance against us, we got the win and that’s what matters. If we beat Wales this weekend suddenly we’re in with a chance of the Triple crown and maybe better.
@Buster Himan: you are so right , Scotland were like rabid dogs, I thought we done well and think this will be shown to be the case with a win on the weekend
@Buster Himan: how many of those wins were away from home? Have a look at their away record and let us all know how good they are “on their day”
@Buster Himan: Well said Buster. Performance was scrappy but a win is a win and good teams have to win ugly sometimes. Fair play to you for the optimism…we all need it.
It wasn’t great but nothing absolutely disastrous last week. Our scrum was poor for sure. That alone would have made a massive difference. Scotland had us as one of their 2 target wins this year and it was always gonna be brutal as the players said afterwards. If we go with too many changes we are taking a huge gamble but if we make just a few changes at least we know that these lads just need a return to form and they are a proven force. Damned if you do and…..
Is Farrell being Sarcastic??……i hope so
Its one thing Farrell trying to talk up the team but the facts are the players are disillusioned and demotivated by the game plan. Now Farrell keeps riding the white line between motivating the players to play for him and the disillusionment of a game plan that has not worked in some time. If he keeps placating the fans and the players then not making enough improvement in he game plan then he will lose the terraces and the dressing room. Joe’s single most important mistake was not refreshing the attack with a suitable coach. The IRFUs mistake was appointing a successor who failed as a defense coach at the RWC. Now the defense is still ropey and the attack is worse, this is where we will see if Farrell is a head coach. Will he go back to the well of Wigan for a defense coach and what will he do about the dubious capabilities of Mike Catt?
@Christiaan Theron: so from the two weeks he’s had and one game you’ve decided he wants everything to remain exactly the same? He doesn’t,and it won’t. It will be minor tweaks this year and more next year. This is a world Cup seeding year as well. Every loss has a major cost.
@Christiaan Theron: totally agree, I’d also like to know what Easterby gets paid for?
@Christiaan Theron: What utter rubbish. What “facts” do you have that players are demotivated ? If you have facts then use them to back up your argument. You are using a turn of phase like Mr Trump without any facts.
In comparison you have many articles on here and RTE website from players, and ex-players, saying how much better it is.
@Con Cussed: If its so much better why does that not translate into the game?
If we want to “play of quick ball” why pick the slowest and most pedestrian scrum half available? Scotland should have scored at least two tries . If the score had been 23 19 in favour of Scotland what would the reaction have been?
@Thomas O: The ball is slow because the pack aren’t making any yards with their carries, only Stander and James Ryan made more than 10 metres in the whole game and Cian Healy impressively managed to be driven backwards on all 6 carries. Silly to blame the 9 when they’re under pressure and on the backfoot constantly.
So Sexton and O’Mahony on to start, most probably both of them are going to be replaced before the final whistle. Who is gonna be captain I wonder. Is this where Ryan gets it?
Onwards and upwards,two home games to get us into our stride#PMA
Interesting 5 Irish players made 6N team of the week here https://www.rugbypass.com/news/six-nations-xv-of-the-week-round-1
The man is a fraud.